I prefer Jackson Hyde for the reasons of having a origin closer to Aquaman giving them more of a connection and I like the idea of him starting fresh and learning more then just poof and he could do this, but the YJ version was awesome seen despite me not liking the fact he replaced Garth.

there was a Solstice in the pre-reboot, but for the most part, yeah, she's an OC for the New 52.

I notice that the other OCs, Skitter and Bunker are not there, though.... but then again DC comics doesn't treat their OCs very well since the fans only care about the big names. We could get to know the OCs and come to like them, but right now Skitter was kind of shuffled away without explanation and Bunker recently left the team because his boyfriend came out of a coma. Beast Boy went with him to make sure he got there safe. The final scene of Bunker leaving did not look like he was coming back... it looked like it was his final scene

I read the comics to make fun of them all not that it's hard. It's hilarious to see DC make such morons out of themselves around every plot-corner though. None of their stories really match up and they're always getting their own facts wrong. XDD

which reminds me of something i don't really like about them.i don't really like that, in all their publications, if you pick one "batman" book, you get one story and the characters portrayed one way; but you could pick up another "batman" book and you'd get an entirely unrelated story and the supposed same characters act differently.

theres just no big common thread in all of this. especially with the concept of alternate universe.it just create one big mess.

its quite the contrary to japanese mangas that have one big story to tell or french comicbooks that are more often than not, a standalone story in one single book.

I've never read a French comic book, but I've heard from others that they can be pretty good.

DC's big problem is how they treat the talent. The editors are either changing every other thing about the script the writers come up with or they're harassing the writers, causing the writers to leave and they have to get in a new writer. One who doesn't know what's going on so they can't get the story straight. Not that it matters with constant unwarranted editorial interferences. Writers are always complaining that they can't get the editors to talk to them to tell them the facts of "the world" that the characters live in, so they have to guess. Then it's all changed by editors at the literal last second.

I'm pretty sick of Tim Drake changing on me. One minute he's the heart-of-gold dude who cares about nothing but saving teens from horrible things, and the next minute he's treating them like crap. And I'm not talking about the one time that Trigon was controlling Tim to make him act strange. Even before that moment, it was like the editors said "we want Tim to get mad at Bart over a sweater... they have a fight. And the OC, Bunker (who usually is very sweet and understanding and wanting friends to get along) eggs the fight on for dramatic effect." And no one sees the contradiction here-?

Or I could forget all that logical thinking and just say I choose to hate DC comics because they killed Damien. They murdered my peanut and they probably killed Kenny, too, the bastards...!

Though they have officially announced that they're bringing him back, I think I'd rather he stay dead... then they can't hurt him any more But oh well... I do wonder how they will resurrect him. I just hope it's not another Lezarus Pit, cuz that's getting old.

***

Sorry to have prattled on

Do you have any French comic book recommendations? I hate grabbing blindly, since the first experience, if a poor one, could ruin the experience greatly...

I'm with you on this except for one thing. Grant Morrison killed Damian. DC would most likely have seen fit to keep a Robin by Batman and kept him alive, and some of the better work was coming from someone other than Morrison.

Morrison ALWAYS planned to kill him off, and his popularity only stayed his execution by a bit. That's just kind of how Morrison is.

Other than that, totally agree. Inconsistencies abound. And they're worse now than they were...they used to be better than this.

As it stands, Damian is back in that non-canon spinoff (which is going horribly) so I consider my previous message to be out of date by now. But it's true that certain writers get to pull really bad plot twists because they have a big name or because they're just not that good at writing. Rob Liefeld got practically whatever he wanted in screwing with Deathstroke's N52 storyline because he's such a big name and so does Scott Lobdell when he screws over Teen Titans and Red Hood.

The only people that DC is willing to let have creative freedom are the people who think just like them; who make all the same crappy moves as them plotwise.(so, if Rob and Scott hadn't seen eye to eye with Jim Lee and Dan Didio, they likely would have been treated the same way as the other writers--Gail Simone is a rare exception, and they still edit the hell out of her scripts. You can tell what was her and what wasn't. If not for her popularity, they wouldn't even keep her.)

More or less, they would have gladly killed off Damian anyway. It's about Tim's reaction. Almost everyone who loved Tim before hates him now, thinking of him as being a horrible person and one of the things that they (we) complain about is what Tim's dad's death brought to the storyline. It was nice that Tim didn't have the same orphan story that Bruce, Richard, and Jason had--but the difference was that we got to know Tim and like him THEN see his dad die for ourselves. It wasn't just a "it happened before he met Batman" story like Jason and Richard. It made Tim more empathetic/sympathetic. He had to find the body (man, that was tear-jerking...) and we werent in the moment with him, not just some flashback. Then there came his grieving, holding it in, needing to let it out and talk about it... it was a whole thing for a while. It was a good move.

In seeing their crappy N52 Tim being so hated, they decided that a death was needed to rattle Tim to make him more likeable--so they nailed Damian. Poor Peanut... I heard the rumors of a black Robin taking his place (some new OC they're going to make) and although I think that would be kinda cool, I hate to see how they're going to portray black people.... it's bad enough they insulted Cyborg by tossing him onto the Justice League JUST to have a black guy there. Grant Morrison tried to say "oh, well, I was always going to kill Damian off, I said it two years ago!" I don't doubt the moronic guy, but like I said, Damian would have died anyway. He was the most disposable since people didn't care enough about Tim's N52 dad to kill him off and have it be "good." Pre-reboot, we saw Tim's dad, watched him recover from his crippling incident (as much as he could anyway) saw him scold Tim, felt that fatherly connenction where either come to think of him as our dad, too, or that neighbor-dad we used to live next to. So, his death had meaning for us. He's in witness protection in N52, we never get to know him except as a "Tim Ego Stroker" with the big "we love you, son, so damn much, SO damn much, you hear me?" talks. We saw how DC fought to keep Batwoman from getting engaged to her fiance, and only with constant fighting back did the writers get them engaged. They couldn't get the married, but they really had to work like hell just to get the big guys to let them get a ring on their fingers. If they didn't want Damian dead, they'd have pitched a fit. Fought it. They didn't. They thought it was a fine idea. They also see Damian as a money-maker since he's more than popular enough, so if someone wanted to bring him back from the dead (Grant Morrison said it will never be him--apparently, he hates that Batman had a Robin or something) they would allow it mostly because his death accomplished their goal: Tim's grieving, as well as taking the place of Jason's death in order to shake Batman.

I'm not placing blame with DC for Grant's lame move, no, because I see him in the same light as DC anymore. Any luster he had is long gone, just like Jim Lee and certain others. When Rob Liefeld messed with Slade, I placed proper blame on him--but I still say "those Dc bastards f-ed up Deathstroke" because he's one of them even if he's not 24-7 employed by them. Same with Scott Lobdell and Grant Morrison. Their crappy plots are THERIS, but they're still "DC" to me.

... and I'm sorry if this was a bit too "rant"-y I wasn't trying to seem hostile to you specifically. I appreciate that you were willing to comment when most people wouldn't have even bothered to read all of my previous comment or this one...

good french comic books?ive got plenty of them since im in a french country. finding them in english can be a hassle though.==================anyway, i have a few series.-the first would be Lucky Luke, a cowboy that is pretty much unbeatable in the far west. the strength of that serie is having situations where strength means nothing.that and the secondary characters are just that funny.he meets a lot of little adventure accross all the big people and landmarks of the far west.=============-A second one would be Asterix.The serie was translated in england instead of the US.this time its a duo of invincible protagonists.However, even then, they get defeated a few times in the run of the serie.Its about a duo of Gauls from 50 BC and the wacky adventures they have in that time.and the names are all so funny.They also got films and they are almost all very funny.Both the animated ones and the real actors ones can be recommended though watch out, there are at least one or two flops. Though i would say to avoid the last book in the serie, The Sky Fell on Their Heads. it tried to do a much modern approach and it failed spectacularly.============-a third funny serie would be Gaston Lagaffe.i find it a bit less funny than the two previous ones but its still worth a look at least.its about a guy that keep making "gaffes", funny catastrophic events.for example, he invented a musical instrument that can break pretty much every roof in a building due to how bad it sounds. himself he hears nothing though.============-on a bit of a different genre, there is Melusine.its a story about a sexy little witch and her magical funny adventures.it can be funny and is sometimes sexy and it knows.=================-now on a more serious genre is Natacha.this time its a serious comic book with good adventures. its about Natacha, a air hostess and her bumbling side-kick/lover.However, you should know that its very sexy at pretty much every page instead of one page per album like Melusine, so if you don't like that, you can pass it.the author makes porn, so it shows even though the Natacha serie is tame compared to his other works.===========-another serious serie is Valerian.this time its a Science fiction serie and the first in that list to have an overarching story.its a story of a couple, valerian and laureline, that travel trough space, and sometimes time, to try and restore the planet earth that got erased from time.they meet a lot of people of different alien worlds.==========a final one and the only modern comicbook of the bunch.Freaks Squeeleits a french manga, a manfra. (the term "cartoon" is unknown in french)each of the current 6 books is around 170-200 pages each.its a fantasy type book with fantasy monsters in a modern world.it has an overarching serious story much more focused than valerian.however, its also EXTREMELY funny at the same.i feel its the funniest of the bunch.it must be because its humor is more fresh compared to the old series that focus almost exclusively on slapstick comedy.

this reminds me, i have two more serie that are on a more ambiguous note.==========there is the serie Achille Talon.my recommendation is to avoid it at all cost.its a serie that focus on very long winded text said by a bourgeois. its so talkative, its more text than images.it also use a very "high class" way of talking that is pretty hard to understand for the reader.================a more ambiguous note is Spirou, the flagship book of all the french comicbook industry.this comic book is almost a 100 years old.as such, quality and authors varies wildly.its usually a adventure type of comic.

so since it change authors often, quality varies a lot.the first 20 books or so authored by Franquin are pretty silly adventures without much quality in art or story. you can skip them without worry.

the middle sets of book, once the author change, is usually seen as some of the bests, especially those authored by Janry.

the latest books are usually the most varying in quality with authors coming and going often.one catastrophically bad book is "au sources du Z" in which the author time-travelled and erased the entirety of the spirou continuity (whatever there was) in a project to change it to his own vision of things.he got fired for that.after that hijinks, the company offered 6 authors to make a spirou books. quality varies wildly and 2 are even about the same thing.still, 3 of them are good and one of those 3 authors even got hired to replace the previous author.

==================one thing to know of all of them is that the only series that still continue and have new books is Melusine, spirou (sort of) and Freaks Squeele.All the other series are pretty much over. some because their author died.the only one to have an actual conclusion is Valerian since it had an overarching story to conclude.

Oh, I love the red/black combo... but seeing red everywhere is just tacky. It takes away from the character's ability to be themselves and pushes them into the same mold. I also love how they make the excuse "Beast Boy HAS to be red because of the plotline in 'Animal Man' says that 'the red' is nature's color...!" um... I don't care? I want Beast green back -____-